[sabrina]

I have a niece getting married next month. Cost of wedding so far stands at £15.000. Meal alone is £60 a head. To me this is just plain madness and such a waste of money. My OH and I got married 14 years ago. As we had both been married before we decided to have the kind of day that we wanted not what our family did. After our service with just parents, best man and maid of honour  we then went to the hotel and had a lovely meal in a room set up just for us. that evening in the same hotel we through a party for the rest of close family and friends. Had a great time, cost just over £500. No regrets about over spending but wonderful memories of a lovely day. lots of laughter and plenty of dancing.

[Rosemary]

That's staggering 

Dan and I had a lovely wedding too - 24 guests, lovely meal, special tea and activities for the kids, with two nursery nurses on duty to keep them amused 

It was just before Christmas and the hotel was ours for the day. It's an Edwardian house - beautiful inside, and the Christmas tree was up and the log fire burning. It was perfect.

It didn't cost anything like £15k.

And then we hear about the poor young folk that can't get on the housing ladder - £10k would be a good way towards a deposit.

[southernskye]

Wow, that's a bucket load o cash. Herself and I had 8 guests at the legal ceremony part then off to a friends country-house hotel where he did us a super meal and laid on an "honesty bar". then after we spent ages sat around the log fire drinking tea.
 
A total value wedding. Staggers me the cost of these things.....and why people pay so much?!
Rgds
Sskye
 

[john and helen]

Crazy price, we got married two years ago last september, £1,500 and that was with the reg office (legal bit) wedding on the beach (humanist wedding) a whole pig roast and BBQ for 200 people..it was a great weekend..we all camped and caravanned at ladram bay devon... everyone bought a bottle or 3 all the lads and lasses made a isle out of kayaks and made a arch with paddles ..this is helen with her dad..they paddled in from sidmouth..me and my best man paddled in from budleigh

[doganjo]

My daughter's wedding in 1995 cost £12000, we have a huge family, and lots of close friends.  Absolutely brilliant day and I didn't pay for it - car accident insurance from her Dad's death did that.

[doganjo]

By the way if anyone ever sees that necklace and earrings for sale they're hers - stolen last year - given to her by her Grandma to wear at her wedding when she discovered she wouldn't live long enough to be there.

[NormandyMary]

When I got married the first time (1980) my mum gave me the choice of having a reception in a hall with caterers, or having the reception at home with her doing the food. She said that if we chose the latter, they would give us £1000 for our carpets etc for our new home. Obviously we chose the latter and Im so glad that we did. The whole thing was a great success, the food was superb thanks to mum and various cooks she roped in. We had everything from smoked salmon to fresh prawns to the best meats and salads of every kind Our quiches and gateaux were made my a swiss lady recommended to us and they were just superb. We had the best champagne and a total of 100 guests over the course of the day. We had a bar set up in our morning room, with free booze for all. Needless to say, everyone was very merry!!
I couldn't imagine having the sort of wedding some folks have these days. My daughter and her man have decided that if they EVER do decided to tie the knot, it will be a very quiet affair as they don't see why they and others (like me) should pay for relatives they hardly ever see to enjoy themselves Sensible girl!

[Shnoowie]

We're getting married in July with a budget of £11,000.  My parents have put money aside for us, and we are using our savings.  So far we have done the majority of the planning and have spent around £6,500.  The word 'wedding' is an excuse to bump up the price a ridiculous amount.  We are having a larger wedding (60 people at the afternoon reception) as we come from larger families and the only time we are able to see our relatives is hatch, match and dispatch. 

The costs are staggering; the church, bells and choir are just shy of £1,000.  The catering is around £3,000.   We're doing all our own printing, our favours are honey from our hives and we're making all of our invitations.  It is very easy to go overboard! 

EDIT: I agree with Rosemary; the cost of a wedding is a deposit on a house easily.  We actually put down a 50% deposit on our house when we bought it in 2011...simply because the banks would not give us any more of a mortgage.

[Clarebelle]

I married my OH in 2008 in July (it rained...) in a little village church with links to the RAF (we were both in the RAF at the time), we had bells and an organist but it only came to about £300 for the church. We had about 60 guests and rented a hall in a local hotel for the reception, had a sit down meal and disco. My mum paid for my wedding dress (£800) and my dad paid for our classic car to and from the church which was about £400 i think. All together we had lovely church wedding and reception for about £3000 all together including parents contributions.

I was happy with paying that much for the whole do, but anything more then I think my morality might kick in! 

Love those pics John and Helen, looks like a really fun wedding!

[scarlettoara]

my wedding cost £2.5k in barbados and honeymooned in antigua. no guests tho - just us. didnt go down too well with the family but i hate a fuss and being in a crowd.

[doganjo]

My pal in Spain does a roaring trade with couples from the UK going over there, but they ain't cheap neither  but what a beautiful setting for a wedding.
http://www.perfectspanishweddings.co.uk/

[Backinwellies]

Our wedding last Dec cost us under £6000 including our week's honeymoon climbing the High Atlas. 
We had over 100 guests and a church wedding.  We had a victorian Christmas theme and the majorty of guests came in fancy dress.

It doesn't have to cost so much ..... Ian's neice's wedding last July cost £18000!!!! ...... the £12000 difference would rent a good house for a year!

 Ian and I have been to Sub-sahara Africa several times and done several charity events to make money for the people there .... it just does not make sense to spend so much on one day ...

[Womble]

That's staggering 

That's still 25% lower than the average I believe Rosemary!! 
 
John & Helen - I LOVE the idea of a kayaking wedding. Mrs Womble and I have often joked about having a more appropriate anniversary present list too:
 
Year 1) Goretex
Year 2) Neoprene
Year 3) Titanium
Year 4) Down
Year 5) Carbon-Kevlar ;-)
 
etc etc.....

[HesterF]

We paid about £15k for our wedding. We'd both worked for a good few years, owned our own houses (and had made money out of those) so we paid for most of it ourselves (my parents paid for the photographer, dinner and drinks, in laws for the cake and bar later). For us it was just an amazing chance to get all our family and friends together in one place (we'd been living abroad for a year by then) - probably the first and last time. Quite a lot of the budget went towards subsidising room costs so that everybody could afford to stay there and not feel obliged to say no because it was too expensive. It was just the most amazing weekend surrounded by everybody we love. Why begrudge people spending their own money how they choose? All that money will have gone to the local economy where we married - the people who worked on the hotel and various other locals (taxis, babysitters, hairdresser, florist, baker, photographer). All local, independents doing a great job of running their own businesses.

H

[funkyfish]

John and Helen- thought I recognised that beach! We are in Exmouth.  Fab photos!